First, the hat. I made it from scraps leftover from the Blue Velveteen Bodice, as had always been the plan. Leave it to me to pick up a 15x44" remnant of fabric and think "I can totally get two projects out of this!" :p
Let's see if I can remember how I made it. Fortunately I took a few in-progress pictures to help me out. I was inspired by Festive Attyre's Quickie Capote, but I started with a long rectangle instead of the large oval she describes. I sewed it into a wide tube, and lined it with a matching tube of leftover royal blue lining fabric from the bodice. I made the lining tube slightly longer, though:
I did this because I knew I wanted to draw up one side of the tube into a small circle to become the center of the crown, and I was certain that the thick velveteen would not cooperate for this. So after I turned the lining to the inside of the velveteen tube, I matched up the raw edges and stitched the excess lining into a casing at the other end. To this I added a drawstring, and cinched it up:
Even so, I was unable to get the circle to shrink in the center any smaller than this:
So I took a scrap of velveteen and covered a makeshift button mold (made from a broken shank button and a circle of cardboard large enough to cover the hole) and sewed it to the top, covering the hole and the casing. Sadly I have no pictures of this, and the hat itself is still at home in Virginia while I am in Iowa, so I cannot show you what I mean just now. I'll have to take some photos of it when I get home next month.
In the meantime, here are a few shots Brian the Engineer took of me the day of the RSV luncheon:
I have no photos of making the brim, but I remember I used some very thick interfacing that I think I got out of the tie-backs that came with the Curtain-Along curtains from forever ago. (I never did finish trimming my cloak, now that I think about it. Does anyone have any scraps of the Noir colorway I could buy?) I played with the shape until I got something I liked, covered it with velveteen, and attached it to the cap. I also sewed a sweatband of royal blue grosgrain ribbon around the gathered lower edge of the crown, turned it to the inside, and covered the edge with trim.
The trim was some pre-pleated satin ribbon I'd had in my stash for a few years. I actually originally bought it with the idea of making a Felicity Christmas Gown, but I never found fabric that exactly matched the color. It's still on my "someday" costume list, but I'll just have to find fabric first and then buy ribbon that matches and pleat it myself. :p
I made the little brim decoration from the remaining scrap of trim, just kind of coiling it around itself into a somewhat flower-shaped thing, and tacking it in place. Pretty simple.
Oddly, I've since worn this hat more times in my "everyday" life than I've worn it dressed up for Regency events. It's really cute with a particular royal blue top that I have in my wardrobe. I should get some pictures of that. Hmm...
Edit: Haha, just realized that the top I was referring to is the one I'm wearing in the first two photos of my previous post!
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